This is Monday. Normally I turn on my cell at 7-7:30 am and within 60 seconds various tones notify me of new emails or texts. Working a Saturday to Wednesday shift, Monday is when most of my contacts respond to various communications from the previous week. EVERYONE is in the office on Monday. Today, all the organizations I work with are sheltered in place some since the week of 3/16. The flow of work and communication is showing a noticeable difference. It’s no longer a racehorse jumping out of the gate at 7:00 am.
This morning my silent phone feels a bit eerie.
1) an observed joy- Enjoyed the Palm Sunday live stream with the church; many of the parishioners displayed clipped fern leaves, a palm-like stalk found in almost every Northwest yard, for the occasion. Later that evening Zooming with my family, a phone call catch up with a writing friend, was touching as well.
2) a real concern- Two of my friends believe the lockdown will be extended into June or July. I REALLY hope they are wrong. As a social worker, I understand that people and families in crisis live in a pandemic-like state constantly, with no foreseeable end. The common suburbian- in crisis -is an unstable animal.
3) a personal challenge- I want to increase my walks from 4-5 a week to twice a day.
4) one personal success (no matter how small)-I’ve tackled my file cabinet, and I’m doing better about leaving a pile of dishes in the sink.
5) a random thought (no matter how silly)- How long in lockdown before I vacuum behind the bookshelf? There is a spider web back there amongst the dust bunnies and a forgotten hair tie. It is a guardian of all things hidden and forgotten.
Here is my current mood expressed in a pandemic meme. It’s a shout out to all the ‘effin’ people over 70 I see in the grocery stores rocking the isle without a mask with a “death can not touch me” attitude, meanwhile…
shannon p. laws 